How to position solid objects so they're attached, ie links on a metal watch strap?
I figured it out. I thought I'd share the solution. It was a lot simpler than I thought. I left the outer pairs as seperate objects, and inner links as seperate objects too. 
Then, I added an armature, went into edit mode and positioned the ends at either end of the strap. 
Then I subdivided (W) the armature in edit mode a few times until there was enough bones for each segment.
Then I went into pose mode. Selected the left most link, then shift selected the left most bone. Ctrl+P, parent to bone. Then I continued doing that for all the segments of the strap.
Then, in pose mode I selected the last bone and went to Add constraint, IK solver. That's it. 
Now when I move that last bone in pose mode everything follows it sweetly. PS this is in blender 2.49b but it will be very similar in later versions I'm sure.